Seal for bottles



(No Model.) L. O.-LANE.

V SEAL FOR BOTTLES. No. 571,903. Patented Nov. 24, 1896.

I73, c MI O UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LESLIE C. LANE, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

SEAL FOR BOTTLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 571,903, dated November 24, I896. Application filed August 27, 1895. Serial No. 560,652 -(No model.)

To all whont it TILE/J] concern:

Be it known that I, LESLIE 0. LANE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seals for Bottles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide a simple and efficient device for sealing bottles and similar vessels, whereby said vessels, after once having been filled and sealed, cannot be opened or the contents removed therefrom without detection from the subsequent appearance of the bottle.

In short, my invention is designed to prevent fraud in the sale of certain articles, such as patent medicines and other bottled goods, which, on account of their meritorious qualities, have gained high reputations.

It is not an uncommon practice for fraudulent concerns to buy up empty bottles which have contained these meritorious articles, which bottles are usually stamped or otherwise marked with the name of the article and the manufacturer, and, after having refilled said bottles with inferior goods, to again sell the same to the trade as the genuine article. To prevent this fraud, many concerns oifer premiums far 'in excess of the actual value of the bottles for their return, and some concerns even go so far as to keep a traveling man on the road, gathering up their bottles, at great expense.

In my invention I provide a bottle and a seal for the same, which, after the bottle has once been filled and the seal applied, the bottle can never be opened or the contents removed therefromwithout breaking a certain portion of the neck of the bottle. When the bottle has been opened by breaking this neck portion of the same, it will, of course, by its own appearance indicate that the original contents have been removed. At the same time the bottle is not destroyed and is still useful for other purposes.

The preferred form of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein, like letters referring to like parts throughout the several views Figure 1 is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in section, showing a bottle with walls a are located immediately below and slightly inward of the flanged head a of the bottle. This flange a serves to protect the walls a from accidental breakage in handling, storage, or shipment of the bottles.

his the cork proper, which should be driven, as shown, into the neck of the bottle below the detents a.

0 indicates what I may term a guardstopper, which is of such size as to snugly fit the mouth of the bottle and is provided at its under central portion with a depending perforated lug c. This guard-stopper c is made of some hard material, preferably of glass.

9 is a straight spring-steel bar, which in length -is longer than the diameter of the neck of the bottle. This bar g serves as the spring-catch to the seal, and when in its looking position, as shown in Fig. 1, is passed through the perforated lug c" of the guardstopper 0 and engages wit-l1 both of its ends in the pair of detents ct of the bottleneck.

In thisposition of the parts, as is obvious, the only way that the bottle may be opened without breaking is by withdrawing first the guard-stopper 0 against the action of the spring g; but this is practically impossible, for, as already stated, the guard-stopper is made of hard material, such as glass, and hence a corkscrew or other device could not be given a drawing hold on the same. It will be further noted that when in its sealed position the upper face of this guard-stopper c is below the mouth of the bottle, which renders any side hold on the same impossible.

In sealing the bottle the cork b is first forced into position, shown in Fig. 1 ofthe drawings.

Next the spring catch-bar g is passed through the perforated lug c of the guard-stopper c, and then by bending said bar 9, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, the ends of the same are inserted into the mouth of the bottle and forced downward by means of said guard 0 until they reach the detents a, at which point, as already indicated, the

catch-bar g will straighten out into said detents a and lock the parts together. The bottle now being sealed can only be opened by breaking through one of the walls a of one of the detents a. This may be readily done by a very light but properly-directed blow with any hard instrument. The wall of the detent being thus opened the catch-bar g may be readily dropped through the same, which, of course, releases the guard-stopper c and permits the same to fall out at the mouth of the bottle. The bar 9 and the stopper 0 being thus removed the cork b may, of course, be removed in the ordinary manner.

It will be understood, of course, that various alterations in the details of construction of my invention may be made without departing from the spirit of the same. For instance, if

dry, coarse materials were to be bottled the cork I) might be dispensed with.

What 1 claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is as follows:

The combination with a bottle, or other similar vessel, formed with one or more depressions in the inner wall of its neck, said depressions having frangible outer walls, of

a stopper having a depending perforated lug,

and a loose spring catch-bar, said bar being insertible through the perforation in the lug and engageable with the depressions in the bottle-neck, the lug-perforation and the depressions being adapted for alinement when locked together, whereby when the outer wall of the depressions is broken the catch-bar may be rattled out and the stopper removed from place, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I atfix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LESLIE 0. LANE.

Witnesses:

J AS. F. WILLIAMsoN, F. D. MERCHANT. 

